


The Return

by Ncredible



Series: She's Gone [2]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/M, Post Season 4 Finale, my take on the start of season 5
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-19
Updated: 2017-06-19
Packaged: 2018-11-15 23:08:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11241201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ncredible/pseuds/Ncredible
Summary: Clarke returns to the bunker, but not willingly. Everyone sees that Clarke's priorities after being reunited with her friends have shifted.





	The Return

**Author's Note:**

> This was can be read without having read 'She's Gone' the first work in the series.

For the next month Abby worked in the hospital in the bunker until she was too tired to continue working; then she would come to bed, but she kept her distance in bed. She never really ventured out of the bunker to the surface unless someone was injured during the reconstruction and hunting parties. During the meetings with Octavia, the ambassadors, Bellamy and Raven, she didn’t speak unless spoken to. When Abby is asked a question in the meetings I am more than a little surprised she is able answer the question asked. Her gaze seems so far away that I would have thought she hadn’t heard a word said during the meetings.

Today we are discussing a timetable for making the transition from the bunker to the surface permanent. A lot of people with young children have decided to spend nights inside the bunker and a lot of people like having the reliable meals that we are still being provided for by the bunker. So far, the ambassadors have agreed to keep the peace on the surface that we have had in the bunker so for now all pre-Priamfaya grudges are, for the most part, in the past. 

As the current meeting is ending a guard that usually stands outside the door knocks and enters and says, “Pardon the interruption, Heda, but scouts have found two survivors on the surface. One of the survivors was injured when the scouts tried to take them by force. She also managed to wound the scout.” Everyone in the room sits up a little straighter at the guard’s words. 

Indra is the first to recover and says, “That’s not possible.”

“Why did the scout try to take them by force,” I ask.

“I don’t know Ambassador, I believe the scouts wanted to know where the hunting was good,” the guard responds to my question. 

“If a true Nightblood had been able to find sufficient shelter to ride out the Deathwave, then in theory they would be able to survive the radation levels,” Abby states in answer to Indra’s claim that survivors were not possible. It was the first time in a month that Abby had spoken unprompted. 

“Does that mean…. I mean would it be possible for… Clarke…” Bellamy starts.

“No,” Abby says effectively halting the line of Bellamy’s unfinished question, “Excuse me, I will see to the survivor who was injured.” And with that Abby gets up and leaves the office without a backwards glance. 

“Where is the uninjured survivor?” Octavia asks.

“She is being held by the airlock. She is requesting an audience with you, Heda.” The guard says then adds, “Loudly.” 

“Yes,” Octavia prompts when it becomes clear to her that the guard has more he would like to add. 

“The one demanding an audience… she is claiming to be Wanheda,” He says.

The silence that follows is absolute. No one says a word. Wanheda? It can’t be Clarke? Abby wouldn’t even entertain the idea a minute ago that Clarke could have survived with the Nightblood solution. Since finding out Clarke wasn’t in space with the others; when she does talk about Clarke she talks about her vision when she was affected by ALLIE; she cried the night we found out and talked about how much pain Clarke must have been dying from radation poisoning or worse the Deathwave. Abby had gone on in great scientific detail to how much pan Clarke would have been in; in both scenarios and then she spent hours crying afterwards. There wasn’t anything I could say to her to make her feel better so I just held her and rocked her as she cried. But could this survivor be Clarke? Wanheda does just mean Commander of Death; surviving Priamfaya would certainly give anyone the qualifications to become Wanheda. 

“Is the one claiming to be Wanheda a woman?” I ask, not sure what to hope for yet. If it is Clarke will Abby be okay that she gave up on Clarke? If it is Clarke and she’s basically been alone for six years will she even been the same person? If it is someone else just claiming to be Wanheda, maybe Clarke can have died in peace. 

“Yes, Ambassador. They both are,” answers the guard and another silence follows almost as quiet as the one before. 

“We don’t know it is her,” Indra cautions the room. 

“I want to see her, before I tell Abby about someone claiming to be Wanheda,” I say. There is no reason to get her hopes up if one of the survivors is just using Wanheda because she survived Priamfaya without the bunker or going into space. 

“Bring me the one claiming to be Wanheda,” Octavia commands.

“Yes, Heda,” the guard says and turns and leaves the room. 

“Ambassadors leave us. If this is Wanheda is Clarke Griffin, Skaikru will want a minute alone,” Octavia says and the ambassadors rise and one by one leave the room. Each ambassador passes by me as they leave and they give me a subtle squeeze on the shoulder as a sign of good luck or trying help brace me for the coming disappointment, I’m not sure. 

“Could it be Clarke?” Raven asks after the last ambassador has left the room. 

“In theory, I don’t see why not. If the nightblood solution worked all she would have had to do was make it back to the lab before the Deathwave,” Bellamy says. 

“She would have only had a few minutes to get to the lab before the Deathwave hit and after we left,” Raven says. 

“We don’t know that it is Clarke,” Indra cautions again. 

“Do you have something against…” Raven starts heatedly.

“I think Indra just doesn’t want us to get our hopes up, in case that it isn’t,” I interrupt Raven before she can say anything else. 

“LET GO OF ME! Madi? What did you do with her? Where is the girl I was with?” a woman shouts outside the office, “She was hurt, let me see her.”

“Heda, the woman who says she is Wanheda,” the guard must shout to be heard over the woman yelling about her friend. The guard pushes the woman into the room; her head is covered by a bag to keep her unaware of her surroundings and her hands are tied in front of her. The build of the woman looks about right, but the ends of her hair red and Clarke was blonde. I find myself unable to recognize if the voice is Clarke’s or not. It’s been too long. I look over at Raven and Bellamy; they both have stood straighter; perhaps they recognize her voice. 

“Remove the hood,” Octavia says and the guard behind the woman takes the hood off. 

“Clarke,” Bellamy breathes out and he rushes forward to give her a hug, but stops when he remembers that her hands are still bound. He looks over at Octavia; she gives a slight nod and he cuts her free and wraps Clarke into a tight hug. Clarke returns his hug and when Raven moves towards them Clarke gives Raven a hug as well. Maybe the grounders were right; maybe Clarke really is the Commander of Death. Despite all odds she survived Priamfaya. Abby found a cure in the nightblood solution. I step out into the hall and call for Miller as he was on my detail this morning.

“Sir?” he asks.

“Get Dr. Griffin now,” I tell him.

“Sir, she is attending to the other survivor,” Miller tells me. I nod my head; Abby needs to know Clarke is alive, but she has to be a doctor first. 

“Find me as soon as she is done attending to the other survivor,” I say. 

“Sir? Is it true? Is Clarke alive?” Miller asks as he tries to look around me to see into the office.

“Yes, it’s true, but I don’t want Dr. Griffin to find out from anyone but me or Clarke, herself, is that understood?” I tell him.

“Yes, sir,” and with that he makes his way down to med bay.

I walk back into office and see that Raven and Bellamy still have Clarke in a hug. Clarke finally pulls out of the hug with her friends. She turns to Octavia, “Octavia, tell your guards to release Madi, the girl your scouts brought it with me, she isn’t a threat. She means no harm to anyone.”

“How did you survive Priamfaya, Clarke?” Octavia asks ignoring Clarke’s pleas all together. 

“That’s not important right now. Octavia, Madi was hurt when the scout took us in by force. She isn’t going to attack anyone, please let me see her,” Clarke pleads. Who is this girl? Why is Clarke so attached to her, though that is a stupid thought. These two girls were likely the only human interaction either have had for the last six years; of course, they are close. So close, in fact that Clarke hasn’t even asked where Abby is. 

“Your companion can wait, Clarke, first you need to answer a few questions. First, how did you survive?” Octavia says. 

Clarke takes a step towards the desk like she means to sit in the chair across from Octavia, but at the last second pulls Bellamy’s knife from his belt and sinks it into the desk inches from Octavia’s hand and looks straight at Octavia, “I’ll answer our questions after I see Madi, otherwise you can go float yourself.”

Indra draws her sword quickly and places up to Clarke’s throat, but Octavia signals Indra to do nothing further. Bellamy steps forward, but Octavia slows his progress the same way she slowed Indra’s. Clarke’s eyes never leave Octavia and vis versa. Clarke wouldn’t hurt Octavia, but she is close enough to this girl to attack the Commander of the collation. Something about Clarke’s actions seem so familiar; it’s not of leader Clarke had grown into, but something else. 

“Clarke, maybe you could…” I start to try and de-escalate the situation. 

“Quiet Kane,” Octavia says, eyes still locked on Clarke’s. She waits another minute before speaking again, “Alright, Clarke. Twenty minutes with your friend in med bay then you answer all of my questions.” 

“I won’t leave her alone with people she’s never met and two of which came at her with a sword when she refused to leave with them. If you want your questions answered in twenty minutes then you can come down to Medway,” Clarke negotiates.

“If she picks up a weapon, my guards will be forced to respond in kind,” Octavia says.

Clarke’s grip on the knife gets so tight her knuckles turn white, but then she relaxes and let go of the knife and steps back from the desk and responds, “Fine, take me to Madi.”

Octavia looks over at Indra for the first time since Clarke picked up the knife, “Indra will escort you down to Med bay.” 

Clarke nods once and turns towards the door. She waits for Indra to get ahead of her and follows her out without a backwards glance. 

“What the hell?” Raven exclaims when Clarke and Indra have left the room. 

“You okay, O?” Bellamy asks.

“Yea, Bell. I’m fine. It seems Clarke is very attached to this other survivor,” Octavia says. 

“Enough to try and kill Octavia,” Raven says.

“Nothing about Clarke’s actions had any intent to hurt anyone. It was desperation; she cares for this girl,” Octavia states. 

“If you don’t object, Octavia, I would like to follow Indra and Clarke down to Med bay,” I say and wait for Octavia to give a nod of approval. 

I catch up to Indra and Clarke just as they are approaching Med bay. Through the glass wall I can see Abby is trying to treat a young girl who is sitting on a gurney, but she isn’t sitting still enough for Abby to be very affective. Abby is trying to get the girl to let her bandage a nasty slash down her arm. There is a cloth wrapped around her hand that has been soaked in blood. Nightblood. 

“Mom,” Clarke breaths out. I look over at Clarke; she is just staring at Abby. It looks like after everything that has happened in the last couple of hours Clarke hadn’t had time to think about the fact that Abby would be here. Clarke wipes away tears that had formed after seeing Abby. Clarke rushes into Med bay towards Abby and the young nightblood without waiting for Indra or myself, but we follow her into the room. Clarke immediately wraps the young girl in a tight hug and asks the girl something in the grounder language that I can’t quite make out.

“How are you, my little nightblood?” Indra translates next to me. The girl yanks her arm from Abby’s grasp and wraps her arms tightly around Clarke and buries herself into Clarke’s chest. Clarke lets one arm go and grabs hold Abby’s hand tightly, but she doesn’t release her grip on the young nightblood. Mother and Daughter get their first look at one another in six years. Abby has begun tearing up and Clarke lets the tears in her eyes fall, but neither say anything. For a few long minutes the nightblood holds onto Clarke while Clarke holds Abby’s hand. The nightblood girl finally says something; it sounds like it was in response to Clarke’s question, but it’s too muffled for me to make it out clearly. 

“It hurts. Worse than that time I fell from the tree. I thought you said the people in the bunker were your friends why did they attack us?” Indra translates for me again. Indra has been helping me with their language, but I’m not picking up the nuances of the language the same way Octavia, Clarke and even Abby seem to have. Abby began learning the language from their healers and has since become nearly fluent. 

Clarke pulls the girl from her chest and leans down to look her in the eyes before speaking this time in English, “They are, little one, they were just scared. Now they are going to patch you up.”

The nightblood looks at Abby, “I don’t want them to do it, can’t you do it?” 

“Madi, this is my mom, Abby. She is a good doctor and she isn’t going to let anyone hurt you,” Clarke says and looks up at Abby for conformation. 

When Abby does find her voice she says, “That’s right. It’s my job to make you feel better.”

“Clarke, can’t you do it? I don’t know these people and they have already attacked us once. What if they are like those people from that ship we saw?” The nightblood, Madi, says. She had spoken in the grounder language and I caught most of what she had said, but the part about a ship Indra had to translate for me. 

“Okay. I’ll do it, but you need to sit her and keep pressure on the wound, okay. I need to talk to my mom for a minute, okay? I will be right over there.” Clarke tells Madi and she points in Indra and my direction. 

“Okay,” says Madi and she takes a gauze and presses into the sword wound on her arm. Abby and Clarke walk over to where Indra and I had been standing. 

Abby finds her voice again, “Clarke?” She turns Clarke to have her face her and she puts her hands on Clarke’s cheeks, “is it really you?” 

“Yea, Mom, its me. I’m okay,” Clarke’s voice cracks as she answers Abby and she allows herself to be pulled into a tight hug by Abby. She lets the hug last, but eventually she pulls out of her mother’s embrace, her voice still shaky, “is Madi okay? I mean other than the laceration on her arm and hand?”

“Can’t I just look at you for a minute,” Abby asks. 

“Mom. Please, Madi is she okay?” Clarke asks again.

Abby looks at Clarke and over at Madi, who is looking at us, but is doing as Clarke asked and keeping pressure on her wounds. When Abby looks back at Clarke and answers she says, “As far as I can tell she’s fine, but she wouldn’t let us examine her. She wouldn’t say anything or respond to any of our questions in either language. She’s been active and responsive, but until a full examine I can’t be certain.”

“She said she was in pain have you given her anything for it?” Clarke asks.

“No, she wouldn’t be still enough for me to give her an injection. She was barely tolerating me cleaning out the laceration on her arm. 

“Can you get a pain killer for her? I’ll stitch her up now.” Clarke asks.

“What ship was she talking about Clarke?” I ask because the girl sounds afraid of whatever this ship is.

Clarke looks up at me; with the fire, I have seen before in Abby’s eyes, before she speaks, “Octavia gave me twenty minutes, it has been less than five.”

“Clarke…” I try again. 

“Kane, she’s right,” Indra says to me. Clarke takes the pain killer and suture kit that Abby had gotten for Clarke. Clarke takes the medical supplies and walks over to Madi. 

Clarke sits down on the chair by the gurney that Madi was on, “Hey, little one. This is going to make you feel better,” Clarke says holding up the pain medicine in the syringe up to show Madi. 

Madi looks down at the needle before holding out her arm to Clarke, “How does it make it better?”

“Well there medicine it that blocks the pain…” Clarke begins much like a teacher explaining weather changes.

“No lessons, right now,” Madi says pleadingly. 

“Alright,” Clarke laughs, “but you know when I told you about the Commander Lexa’s fight with King Roan of Azegeda and I told you that she used her hand to keep the king’s sword from killing her it wasn’t meant to inspiration in a fight.” Clarke picks up Madi’s hand and unwraps it to look at the damage on the palm of her hand. 

“I know. I know, but what else could I do? They were going to hurt you,” Madi responds.

“Hey, it’s my job to keep you safe,” Clarke says as she rewraps Madi’s hand after having put disinfectant on the wound. 

“I thought it was our job to look out for each other,” Madi says, turning a little to give Clarke a better angle to her arm.

Clarke stops what she is doing and looks Madi in the eyes, “I guess you’re right, but please no more grabbing swords, okay?” Clarke says.

Madi ducks her head, “Okay?” Clarke asks again bringing her free hand to Madi’s chin to gently force Madi to look her in eyes.

“Okay. How long do we have to stay here? I want to go back to the Rover. It’s noisy in here.” Madi says and she looks around at the generators that produce noise. I always forget they make noise until someone points it out.

“I’m not sure, but soon. Okay, for now, why don’t you lay down and rest.” Clarke says once she finishes up with Madi’s wounds and she gently pushes Madi down on the gurney and pulls a blanket over her. 

“You still going to be here when I wake up?” Madi asks. For the first time since I’ve been in the Med bay Madi sounds terrified. 

“Aren’t I always?” Clarke asks rhetorically and fusses with the blanket a little more. Madi closes her eyes and Clarke sits there and watches her sleep.

“It seems Wanheda has developed a strong bond with the natbilda.” Indra says. Pulling me away from watch Clarke and Madi interact. 

“It reminds me of when Clarke was four and she had a fever and we had used up the limit on drugs to reduce her fever and I just sat with her for hours. Just holding her.” Abby says. I remember Clarke getting sick Jake and Abby barely left Medway until the fever broke. 

“Gaia broke her arm training when she was a girl and the bone didn’t heal properly, the healer had to rebreak the bone, I didn’t leave her side for a week,” Indra says.

“I don’t understand what either of those instances have to do with Clarke and Madi,” I say completely lost. Indra doesn’t share much about her life as a mother. 

“It seems Clarke became a mother in the last six years,” Abby says.

“That girl is older than six years old,” I say.

“Not every family shares blood,” Indra says then adds, “I will tell Octavia that Clarke wishes to stay with the Natbilda until she wakes and that we should prepare for whatever could be on the ship Wanheda and the Natbilda were talking about.” With that she turns and leaves the room. Abby steps closer to me and I open my arms and wrap them around her. We just watch Clarke watching Madi sleep. Octavia words in the office before I left finally sink in. Clarke was desperate to get to this girl; it was more aggressive than anything Abby had done to get down here back to Clarke. But on the other hand, Abby did get Raven to build a shuttle from scraps to get them down here. Sinking a knife into a desk next to the hand of the Commander, maybe doing whatever it takes to get back to a loved one is just a Griffin women trait. Octavia would recognize it just as well as Abby and Indra because Bellamy was always just as desperate to keep her safe. 

“Marcus?” Abby says after awhile.

“Hmm?” I acknowledge

“She’s alive, my baby girl,” Abby says. 

“Yes, and the two of you will be a family again after the commotion of her return settles down.

“The four of us,” Abby corrects. 

“The four of us.” I correct and kiss the top of her head.

“I just hope that whatever is out there lets us have some time together before… before Clarke takes it upon herself to help everyone.” Abby says. 

“Me too,” I tell her, because I know I can’t promise nothing is going to happen because something always does on the ground.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. Kudos and Comments are greatly appreciated


End file.
